The Jedi Civil War, also known as the Second Sith War, the Old Republic Insurrection, and by the Mandalorians as the War of the Star Forge, was a devastating conflict that began when the Jedi Knight Revan, who had led the forces of the Galactic Republic to victory in the Mandalorian Wars, founded a new Sith Empire and declared himself the Dark Lord of the Sith. The war began when he, along with his friend and apprentice, Darth Malak, led an invasion of the Galactic Republic in the year 3,959 BBY. With the aid of veterans from the Mandalorian Wars and a host of Dark Jedi converts that had served with them, the former Jedi hoped to take over the Republic in anticipation of a greater threat, that posed by the True Sith who lurked within the Unknown Regions of the galaxy.

During the war Darth Revan nearly succeeded in conquering the Republic, however, a trap set by the Jedi and unwittingly abetted by Malak left him comatose, with his mind nearly destroyed. Barely alive, he was taken from the wreckage by Bastila Shan, whose skills in battle meditation and the Force had allowed the mission to happen. Taken to the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine, Revan was healed by the Jedi Council and reprogrammed to believe that he was an agent loyal to the Republic and placed under the command of Bastila, who was then placed aboard the Endar Spire. In 3,956 BBY, with the intention of drawing out Revan's fragmented memories of the Star Forge, the vast space station that was the source of the seemingly endless resources of the Sith, he was taken to the ecumenopolis of Taris where a Sith fleet under the direct command of Malak was waiting in ambush.

Eventually escaping from Taris, Revan, along with Bastila, Carth Onasi, and several others, fled to the Dantooine academy, where the Jedi Masters there retrained him. After several weeks, the Dantooine council sent him and the crew of the Ebon Hawk back out into the wider galaxy to track down the Star Forge's location, at the heart of the ancient Infinite Empire of the Rakata. Later, after a number of ancient Star Maps had been uncovered, Malak led an attack against the Enclave, devastating it and further crippling the Jedi Order. After finding the last Star Map and, from it, deducing the location of the Rakatan homeworld of Lehon, Revan, the Jedi, and the Republic launched the war's final battle. With Malak dead, the Star Forge destroyed, and the Sith fleet scattered and defeated, the long and costly war came to an end.

HistoryOrigins

The Mandalorian Neo-Crusades

The seeds of the Jedi Civil War were sown nearly twenty years before the conflict would come to pass. Beginning in 3,976 BBY the Mandalorians, a race of warriors that descended from the Taung of ancient Coruscant, embarked upon a second campaign of conquest after reforging themselves in the wake of the defeat of Exar Kun during the Great Sith War. Taking worlds and ravaging colonies throughout the galaxy beyond the edge of Republic space, the many clans of Neo-Crusaders, under the leadership of Mandalore the Ultimate, carved out a territory greater than that ruled by the Hutts in the span of little more than a decade.

After hearing of what was happening beyond the Outer Rim Territories the Galactic Senate initially declined to respond, choosing not to act in the defense of planets outside of the Republic's borders. Many senators, still weary of war after the devastation wrought by Kun and the Krath Holy Crusade, did not wish to subject their constituents to yet another conflict unless the Mandalorians threatened the Republic itself. Once he felt that his clans were sufficiently battle-hardened, Mandalore soon obliged them, taking up the secret offer of the Sith to challenge a worthy foe. Launching a three-pronged invasion in 3,963 BBY. Mandalorian fleets poured into Republic space through invasion corridors blazed through adjacent sectors along the Outer Rim, sparking the Mandalorian Wars. In the opening battles of the conflict, particularly at the Battle of Serroco, forces of the Republic Navy were overwhelmed by superior numbers and tactics. Despite these unfortunate events, the Jedi Council refused the Republic's desperate pleas for aid, sensing that there was another, hidden threat that had yet to reveal itself. Though many of the youngest and brightest members of the Jedi Order were eager to combat the Mandalorians, the Jedi Masters would not allow it, preferring to keep private their own fears and plans for war.

Intervention

The Battle of Cathar played a large part in changing the situation. During the Neo-Crusades that predated the invasion of the Republic, forces under the leadership of Cassus Fett, Mandalore's chief tactician, attacked the world of Cathar, enslaving and killing as many Cathar as possible. It was theorized later that this flagrant attack was one of many that were calculated to draw the Jedi into the conflict. The gamble paid off; spurred by the genocide of the Cathar, the young and charismatic Jedi Knight Revan, who would become known as "The Revanchist", defied the Council and began to rally younger members of the Jedi Order, including his friend Alek, to his cause. After lending their support to the battered Republic fleet, they soon proved to be more than capable commanders in the field, quickly rising through the ranks. Soon, they were given direct control over one-third of the entire Republic Navy. Revan used this newly-bestowed authority to spearhead the Republic war effort; under his inspired leadership, the all-but-defeated troops of the Republic recomposed themselves and began to push the Mandalorians back.

Some time during the year 3,963 BBY, Revan visited the forgotten Sith world of Malachor V while scouting for new outposts along the embattled Outer Rim. Upon landing on the planet's surface, he was nearly destroyed by the resonance of ancient dark side power that lingered there. He managed to survive the encounter through sheer force of will, but he did not escape unscathed. Having embraced the dark side in the wake of his near-fatal brush with it, Revan continued to explore the harsh surface, eventually stumbling upon the Trayus Academy. An abandoned training center built by an ancient Sith faction known only as the True Sith , it had lain dormant for millennia. While unearthing the planet's buried secrets, Revan learned the exact location and significance of the planet Korriban, the homeworld of the Sith species. When Revan and Alek, now called Darth Revan and Darth Malak, declared themselves to be the new Dark Lords of the Sith, one of their first overt acts was to execute a repeat of this raid; using codes given to them by Saul Karath, Sith bombers passed through the perimeter sensor nets without being detected and began ravaging the inner defenses. As the Republic attempted to mount a defense, many of their warships were boarded and seized by Sith troopers; these newly-commandeered vessels were quick to join with the fleet of Sith vessels that had arrived to ensure the success of the raid. Thusly armed, the forces under the two former Jedi began their assault on the unsuspecting galaxy.

Czerka AlliesDuring these early days Revan also signed a treaty with corrupt and greedy Czerka Corporation. Czerka was offered a monopoly on trading rights in Sith space in exchange for supplying the war effort. Pollard Seario and his Czerka minions jumped at the opportunity. The Sith took direct control of one of the coporation's hidden military research facilities, called Czerka 431. There they forced the Czerka scientist Joni Ree to perform experiments on Juggernaut war droids. Ree disliked her new employers and secretly contacted the Republic to give them the location of the facility and arrange for them to attack it, which she could co-ordinate with an escape attempt she had planned. The Republic sent a small amount of troops and the outcome of the resulting battle is unknown.

Bombardment of Telos

At this point, Admiral Karath openly declared his intent to abandon the Republic he had once served. As a test of his loyalty, he was ordered by Darth Malak to bombard the strategically-placed Republic world of Telos IV. Given command of a fleet of Sith warships, Karath surrounded the planet and demanded that its government surrender. After being rebuffed by the local government, he ordered his fleet to commence a devastating orbital bombardment. The resulting attack was carried out with brutal efficiency, scourging the surface of the once-lush and prosperous world of all animal and plant life and causing the atmosphere to degrade into a miasma of toxic vapors that produced acid rain. While some citizens were able to escape on intra-system shuttles, millions were killed, and many more died soon after due to medical supply shortages and the after-effects of the bombardment. Karath's forces, meanwhile, departed the system, allowing the evacuation ships to survive unmolested so that the refugees contained therein would stand as testimony to what the Sith were capable of. A nearby Republic task force, with which Carth Onasi was serving, arrived in the system shortly afterward, but by then it was too late to do anything more than ensure the evacuees were able to reach safety.

Strike on Iridonia

The Sith were interested in capturing the Zabrak homeworld, Iridonia and in destroying the Republic fleet based there, so they sent the former Jedi, Acaadi, to prepare the planet for an attack. He infiltrated a band of Mandalorians, who had been stranded on the planet following the Mandalorian Wars. Over the next few months, they came under Acaadi's leadership and he had them destroy a Republic military communications centre on the planet, in preparation for the Sith attack. Afterwards, Acaadi no longer needed the Mandalorians, so he rid himself of them by having some of them run into his old comrade, the Jedi Duqua Dar. Acaadi then killed the Mandalorians and rescued Dar from them, before proceeding to persuade him that the Jedi were holding him back and that he should leave the Order. They were overheard by a group of Jedi and spacers, who had been working with Dar, and Acaadi and Dar were forced to flee. They made their way to a secret hangar on the edge of the city of Wortan and Dar waited there along with some Sith commandos, while Acaadi and some commandos flew off in a shuttle to sabotage the flagship of the Republic fleet above Iridonia, Champion of Iridonia. The Jedi and spacers arrived and tried to persuade Dar that Acaadi had tricked him. They fought and killed the commandos, before learning of Acaadi's plan.

The Jedi flew to the Champion, to warn it's commander, Admiral Rokon, of what Acaadi was going to do. Acaadi spoke into a security camera and revealed that he and his commandos were already sabotaging the ship and that it was too late. At that moment, about a dozen Sith ships arrived and engaged the Republic fleet. The Jedi confronted and defeated Acaadi and the commandos, ending the immediate threat to the Champion. The result of the battle is unknown, although a number of Republic ships defected to the Sith during the course of it. Malak prepared a trap of his own, which he sprung on the small Republic fleet led by the Endar Spire, a , over the Outer Rim ecumenopolis of Taris. In the skirmish that resulted, Bastila, Revan, and Carth Onasi, along with a small number of Republic soldiers and crewers, escaped the doomed vessel, landing in different spots on the surface of Taris; Bastila landed somewhere in the Lower City while the pod containing Carth and Revan impacted upon a pedestrian walkway in the Upper City. While Bastila was taken prisoner by the swoop gang known as the Black Vulkars, who intended to sell her into slavery, Carth pulled an unconscious Revan from their pod and hid out in an abandoned apartment, where he remained in a coma for three days.

Even as the Endar Spire was being turned into free-floating hydrogen, space and ground forces under the command of Malak were taking control of Taris and instituting a planet-wide quarantine, circling the planet with a fleet of Sith warships whose auto-targeting laser cannons could obliterate any vessel that attempted to leave the surface. With little else to do, Carth, along with Revan's new identity, began to search Taris for clues as to what had happened to Bastila, believing her to be the key to eventually stopping the Sith&mdash;if that was even possible. Eventually, working with members of the Hidden Beks gang and with help from the streetwise duo of Mission Vao and Zaalbar, the two Republic soldiers were able to gain an approximation of where Bastila was being held and why&mdash;as the Vulkars' share of the victory prize for the Tarisian Season Opener swoop race. Seeing a chance to rescue her, Revan accepted Gadon Thek's offer to infiltrate the Black Vulkars' base in order to retake a prototype swoop engine accelerator that had been stolen from the Beks; in return, Thek, leader of the Beks, would let Revan enter the swoop race under the Bek banner. After winning the race with a surprising upset, ostensibly having never piloted swoop bikes before, Revan was accused by the Vulkars' leader, Brejik, of cheating; when Brejik refused to release the hitherto unconscious Bastila, she used the Force to free herself. In the firefight that followed, Brejik and many of his Vulkars were dead, leaving Bastila and Revan free to return to the apartment where Carth, Mission and Zaalbar were hiding out.

Revan's reemergence

The actions at the swoop race caused quite a stir among the criminal element on Taris, attracting the attention of the Mandalorian mercenary Canderous Ordo, who up to that point had been working as the personal enforcer for crime lord and Exchange boss Davik Kang alongside the recently-hired famed bounty hunter Calo Nord. Sensing an opportunity to further his own interests, since Davik had not been paying him the credits that had been promised, Canderous offered Revan a deal: in exchange for the party breaking into the Sith-controlled military base on Taris and stealing the codes necessary for a ship to leave unmolested by the Sith in orbit, he would offer them access to their ticket out, Davik's personal starship, the Ebon Hawk. With the aid of the custom-built astromech droid T3-M4, Revan, Bastila and Carth were able to enter the base. After clearing it out and defeating the Sith Governor in charge, the trio met up with Canderous at Javyar's Cantina in the Lower City. The mercenary then took Revan to the estate of Davik Kang, ostensibly in order to recruit him into the Exchange, however it was instead a ruse to get them inside. Once Davik had left, the party set out to steal the Ebon Hawk. Around this time, a group of six Mandalorian mercenaries stranded on Taris attacked Sith Marauder and a number of Sith troopers in a newly-established Sith outpost on the planet.

Meanwhile, in orbit, Malak was growing frustrated at the increasingly fruitless search for Bastila. As a last-ditch measure, and in keeping with his personality, he ordered Saul Karath to begin a systematic bombardment of the planet. A somewhat hesitant Admiral Karath complied, noting that it would take several hours to reposition the fleet in order to conduct such an operation. This delay would prove to be costly, as it was during that time that Revan and Canderous succeeded in stealing Kang's prized freighter, eliminating the crime boss and, in appearance, Calo Nord as well, even as the Sith bombardment began. Flying amidst a deluge of turbolaser blasts that was fast turning the city-world into flaming rubble, the Hawk swooped by the apartment where the rest of Revan's companions were staying, picking them up and angling hard for the stars. As they made haste to ascend the planet's gravity well far enough to enter hyperspace, a sextet of Sith fighters began to give chase. Manning the freighter's dorsal gun turret, Revan was able to quickly dispatch the enemy starfighters, leaving the way clear for the ship to flee to Dantooine.

It was during his time on Taris that Revan began to experience odd flashes of his old memories; dreams at first, in which he witnessed snippets of the events which led up to his apparent death, these soon developed further. Upon first meeting Bastila as his new self, Revan witnessed a vision of his capture, though he did not recognize its significance at the time. As soon as the Ebon Hawk landed at the Dantooine Enclave, Bastila left the ship to speak with the Council there to report on what had happened upon and to the city-world&mdash;including, perhaps, what Revan had reported seeing. Nor was this the last sending, for soon after this both of them shared yet another memory, a vision in the form of a dream depicting Revan and Malak within a nearby set of ruins, who were seeking out "the secrets of the Star Forge".

The Quest for the Star Forge

Recognizing the significance of these visions, for it was what they had intended when wiping the memories of the captured and comatose Revan, the Dantooine Enclave Council debated whether or not to retrain the former Knight in the ways of the Jedi. Vrook was cautious, for he believed that there was a distinct possibility of Revan returning to his dark ways; however, after discussing the matter in private, it was decided by the Council to induct the amnesiac warrior back into their ranks. Over the following several weeks Revan went through intense remedial Jedi training, working with Bastila and under the supervision of Jedi Master Zhar Lestin. After proving his knowledge of the Jedi code, constructing a new lightsaber, and seeking out and redeeming the fallen Juhani, Revan proved to Lestin that he was ready to become a Padawan; thus proven, he, Bastila and Carth were sent out to investigate the ruins from the vision that the two Jedi had shared. What they found within confirmed what the Jedi Order had previously thought, that Revan and Malak, after falling to the dark side, had sought out and found the Star Forge by means of a series of Star Maps. Armed with this knowledge, they sent Revan, Bastila, Carth, Mission, Zaalbar, Canderous, and the redeemed Juhani out into the larger galaxy to discover where, precisely, the Star Forge was located&mdash;and to destroy it.

As the party sought the Star Maps on Tatooine, Kashyyyk, Manaan and Korriban, word of Bastila's escape from Taris reached Darth Malak, relayed by Calo Nord, who had narrowly escaped that world's destruction himself. Malak and Admiral Karath promptly hired the man to track the Jedi down, capturing her if at all possible while doing whatever was necessary to deal with her companions. It was also at this time that the first hints of a certain other being's survival came to the Dark Lord's attention as well, though this fact was kept in strictest confidence. Throughout their quest, the party led by Revan ran into Sith agents, including detachments of Dark Jedi. After uncovering the first Star Map, hidden within the lair of a krayt dragon in the Eastern Dune Sea of Tatooine, Nord caught up with them. Aided by a quartet of Rodian thugs, he attempted to carry out his contract; the two Jedi and Carth proved too much for them, however, and Nord, along with his hirelings, were slain. With nothing left to be done on the desert world, the crew of the Ebon Hawk departed for Kashyyyk. while on Tatooine the party was largely responsible for alleviating the threat posed by the Sand People to Czerka's mining and the citizens of Anchorhead, in addition to rescuing Mission's brother Griff and a number of Jawas.

On Manaan, where strict neutrality laws were enforced by the native Selkath under pain of kolto-export sanctions, Revan, Bastila and Carth were forced to deal with a sort of shadow war waged by the Republic and Sith Empire's presence on the aquatic world. After raiding the local Sith Embassy in order to recover an encrypted data module for Roland Wann, the chief Republic diplomat, Revan was provided with the means to access the Hrakert Rift and the secret installation constructed there, where he believed that Manaan's relic was located. Once on the ocean floor, Revan cleared out the station, destroying its kolto-harvesting machinery in order to placate the Progenitor and gain access to the map. All was not as it seemed, however, because shortly thereafter he met up once again with Darth Bandon, who had been sent after Bastila once word of Calo Nord's death had reached Malak. In the melee that followed, Bandon and the pair of Dark Jedi accompanying him were killed.

The Jedi Enclave is destroyed

Even as Revan and his companions followed their mission, Malak himself was preparing to attack the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine. Though the dark side clouded their perception of future events, the Dantooine Council did have sufficient warning to successfully evacuate most of the important relics, holocrons, and other material stored there, as well as to retreat themselves. However, the Sith assault came too quickly for a general retreat; the Enclave itself was pulverized by an orbital strike even as Sith troops descended to the surface to subjugate that world. Many Jedi were killed in the onslaught; throughout the Sith occupation that followed, many civilians were rounded up, most of whom never returned. This sent shockwaves throughout the Order, further weakening it and the Republic; it would not be until well after the war that the Sith themselves would abandon the planet. Admiral Karath interrogated Revan, Bastila and Carth personally, informing them of the destruction of the Dantooine Enclave as he attempted to learn what mission the Jedi Council had sent them on; however, despite his torturing of Bastila, the Sith fleet commander was unable to learn anything, and left the prisoners as they were tortured into unconsciousness. During this, the Ebon Hawk crewmember succeeded in getting away from their guards. With the help of a Rodian captive, they were able to access the detention level computer system and unlock the holding cells and force cages that held the rest of the group.

Now reunited, the crew planned the next phase of the breakout. While Revan, Bastila and Carth made their way to the ship's bridge in order to deactivate the tractor beam and open the hangar, Canderous led the rest of the crew in retaking the Ebon Hawk in order to prepare it for departure as quickly as possible. Carving their way through the Sith troops and Dark Jedi that swarmed the vessel's command deck, the lead party eventually had to don space suits and enter the bridge proper through an exterior accessway via an airlock on the ship's hull. Confronting Admiral Karath on the bridge deck, the party was offered a chance to surrender; the offer was rejected, however, prompting a furious fire- and lightsaber fight that resulted in the Admiral's death. With his dying breaths, however, the onetime Republic officer told Carth of his companion's true nature, but with little time to spare before Malak's imminent arrival, there was no chance to explain the situation. Making a break for it, the three fled back through the command deck and to the hangar level. Despite their haste, the trio was intercepted by the Dark Lord just meters away from where the Hawk was berthed. As surprised as he was amused at the events that had transpired since his betrayal, Malak gleefully filled Revan in on the details of who he was&mdash;and what he had been made into.

The redemption of Revan

Bastila confirmed what the Dark Lord was saying, elaborating on her role in the trap that had been set, and the part she had played in saving Revan's life. Believing that she had his best interests at heart and had indeed been attempting to bring about his redemption, Revan forgave Bastila; this incensed Malak, who condemned his former master's attitude as weak and declaring that he had been right to take the mantle of Dark Lord from him. The two fought amongst the blast tunnels on the hangar level, with Revan driving Malak back, but the Dark Lord fought back hard. Catching up with the duelists, Bastila, with Carth watching helplessly, intervened, throwing her lightsaber at the Sith Lord as she interposed herself into the fight and urged the pair to flee to the Hawk and find the Star Forge. Carth and Revan did so; as the freighter escaped into hyperspace, the party came to grips with what had been revealed. Distrustful at first in the wake of this revelation, Carth relented when the rest of the crew sided with Revan. With Bastila captured, the party had little choice but to press on to Korriban and uncover the final Map. As the two fleets squared off in the space beyond the Star Forge, Revan eventually penetrated the outer defenses, finding and confronting Bastila once again. Still in the thrall of the dark side, Bastila dueled with Revan; even though she was re-energized by the Star Forge's dark side energies after each round of combat, she could not overcome him. Professing his own love for her and encouraging her to draw upon their bond within the Force, Revan was able to redeem Basila, convincing her to use her battle meditation to aid the Republic fleet to atone for her betrayal. With this key reversal, the momentum of the engagement shifted; gaps began to open within the Sith battle lines, openings which were exploited by the Republic's starfighters and capital ships.

As Bastila used her powers to turn the tide of the engagement, Revan went on to confront Malak atop the highest levels of the station. After striking down two Jedi he had captured, the Dark Lord activated a number of ancient droid-producing machines; sealing the room, he fled further into the factory complex. Eventually working his way through the onslaught of combat droids and deactivating the factory, Revan pressed on, defeating Malak in a spectacular lightsaber duel, during which the Dark Lord attempted to siphon off the remaining Force-energy of several Jedi that had been killed when he attacked the Dantooine enclave. Revan, however, was able to use his own power to prevent further instances of this siphoning. After defeating his former apprentice in blade-to-blade combat, he and Bastila, along with Carth and the others, boarded the Ebon Hawk and escaped the station's destruction. With the Star Forge destroyed, the will of the remaining Sith forces in orbit was broken and they were defeated in detail; as a result of this action, the destructive war that had claimed so many lives&mdash;on both sides&mdash;finally came to an end

Fallout

Though the forces under the defeated Malak were routed in the wake of the Star Forge's destruction, the Sith were by no means completely dead; many of the remnants fought amongst themselves for what few scraps of power remained. As well, the Jedi Order was but a shadow of its former self; some estimated that barely a hundred had survived the war and still remained true to the Jedi Code. The war had devastated planets throughout the galaxy, from the farthest reaches of the Outer Rim through to the fringes of the Core Worlds, leaving countless billions dead and many more homeless. These refugees wandered the galaxy, many ending up on Nar Shaddaa, becoming prey for criminals, pirates and slavers; veterans of both sides, deprived of an army or cause to fight with or for, found work as freelance pilots, mercenaries, raiders, or petty thugs.

Restoration and rebuilding

Not long after the end of the Jedi Civil War, the Galactic Senate elected a new Supreme Chancellor, Cressa, who on a platform of reconstruction and rehabilitation began to issue directives for such works as the Telosian Restoration Project, an effort undertaken by a herd of Ithorians led by the Force Adept Chodo Habat to restore the surface of Telos IV. Over the years that followed the vast Citadel Station, and beneath it the many Restoration Zones necessary for the project, took shape. Under Ithorian care, Telos began to show signs of recovery, however the situation began to change as Czerka Corporation gradually took over the project with an eye toward profit. Eventually, the Republic began to overextend itself with their recovery efforts; the Navy was still woefully understrength, and many strategic yet remote worlds became less and less secure for the simple reason that the men and matériel necessary to guard and protect them did not exist. On worlds like Dantooine, which had weathered the occupation by the Sith badly, and Onderon, which had escaped the wrath of the Sith for reasons unknown, the situation began to deteriorate. Criminal elements like that represented by the Exchange, as well as the Hutts, became more pervasive than ever, and without adequate pan-galactic law enforcement they soon began to build mini-empires of their own; this contributed to a further weakening of the galaxy's infrastructure.

The True Sith and Revan's departureAfter the war Revan, through the Force, began to recover more and more of his lost memories despite what the Jedi had done to wipe them away. Even as the Republic attempted to stamp out the last vestiges of the Sith Empire, sending a task force to Korriban approximately one year after war's end that found only empty ruins strewn with the remains of dead Sith, the former Dark Lord realized what had drawn him to the dark side in the first place&mdash;the threat of the True Sith that lingered in the Unknown Regions. Leaving behind his love, Bastila, along with those who had served alongside him at war's end as well as all of his possessions, Revan departed known space in order to face this threat in his own way. The exiled Jedi Master Kreia, who had taught Revan for a time when he was still a Padawan, had gone in search of both him and what had driven him to leave the Republic behind and wage a war against it; eventually she too found Malachor V and, corrupted by its dark energies, began to form the Sith Triumvirate. After the defeat of the Brotherhood of Darkness, Darth Bane sought out the wisdom of his ancient predecessor, the Sith Lord Revan, and even as late as 137 ABY Darth Krayt would seek the same ancient advice on the dark side of the Force, though from those who flourished before and, in the case of Darth Nihilus, rose to prominence in the aftermath of the Jedi Civil War.

CombatantsRevan's Sith Empire

Formed from the survivors of Revan's forces at the end of the Mandalorian Wars, along with their warships, the new Sith Empire that was created grew exponentially, due in large part to the discovery and use of the Star Forge but also through an influx of volunteers. The core of the new Sith military, made up of those who had given their allegiance to the Jedi who had come to help them against the Mandalorians rather than those who had stayed behind, included some of the best and brightest of the Republic's war leaders. Generals such as Derred and Mon Halan, and admirals such as Saul Karath, translated Revan's strategic plans for conquest into winning battlefield tactics, using their knowledge of Republic ships and workings to win a string of devastating victories early on.

In the wake of the betrayal and capture of Revan by Malak and the Jedi, the Sith Empire continued to assault the Republic without mercy, Malak preferring to abandon his former master's overall vision in favor of outright slaughter and the utter destruction of all who would oppose him. At the same time, however, Malak and, at his behest, a large part of the Sith military and a number of their Dark Jedi, became focused upon the capture or assassination of Bastila Shan, whose mastery of battle meditation had thus far proven to be one of the few things that held the advancing might of the Sith in check. Even as the reprogrammed Revan undertook the task the Jedi Council had set for him&mdash;that of locating the Star Forge&mdash;the hunt continued. Eventually, however, at the Battle of Rakata Prime, the redeemed Revan, fighting alongside his companions and the Republic Navy under Admiral Forn Dodonna, prevailed in a duel with his old apprentice. In the wake of the Star Forge's destruction, Revan's old Sith Empire quickly splintered, its leaders hurrying to lay hands upon the few scraps of power that remained. By the time Republic forces arrived on Korriban approximately one year after the war's end, all that remained was howling emptiness and the tattered corpses of dead Sith. By the time of the first Jedi Purge, the scattered remnants were reformed by the Sith Triumvirate.

Jedi Order

Still reeling from the Great Sith War even forty years after that pan-galactic conflagration that saw the fall and death of so many of their number, the Jedi Order, under the leadership of Vandar Tokare, was hesitant to commit to the Mandalorian Wars. Instead, led by the Revanchist, a large number of younger Knights, and even some Masters took it upon themselves to leave the Order behind, joining up with Republic forces battling the Mandalorians on the Outer Rim. Even while this was happening, the Jedi High Council were attempting to determine the nature of the threat that lay behind the Mandalorian invasion, though they did not, in the end, commit the whole Order to the fighting. This hesitancy would come back to haunt them when, three years after the end of that war, Revan and Malak returned to known space at the head of their old fleet, augmented by vast numbers of Star Forge-produced ships, fighters, and war droids.

As the war unfolded, however, Darth Revan's Sith assassins, working from the shadows, kidnapped and either killed Jedi or tortured them until they gave in to the dark side and joined with Revan, and later Malak's, Sith Empire. Jedi were dispatched by the Council in the hope of finding some way to thwart the seemingly unstoppable advance of the Sith, however many did not return, likely hunted down and killed by the assassins Revan had created. In the wake of the the Dark Lord's capture, reprogramming and Jedi retraining, the Council sent Revan out to find the Star Forge and, once pinpointed, to lead Republic forces in destroying it. As the war ended the trials of the Jedi were far from over as, by the end of the battle that saw the destruction of the Star Forge, barely a hundred Jedi remained. These numbers would be whittled down even further as the Sith destroyed themselves, as Revan's assassins were still active; later, the disaster that befell the Conclave on Katarr and the continuing purge by the Sith Triumvirate would all but eliminate the Order. However, the return of the Exile would breathe new life into the shattered Order, and those she would train in the ways of the Force would take up the mantle of Jedi.

Galactic Republic

Like the Jedi Order, the Republic was ill-prepared to face the onslaught of Revan's new Sith Empire. On top of the massive casualties, loss of infrastructure, and crippling blows to its military borne during the Mandalorian Wars, the Republic still had not yet recovered from the Great Sith War waged by Exar Kun and the Krath. Faced with an enemy that had formerly boasted its finest in military technology and leadership, augmented by the hitherto unknown power of the Star Forge, all the Republic could do was fight as best it could though victories were almost nonexistent. Things began to change slightly when Bastila Shan began to use her mastery of battle meditation to aid the Fleet, helping them to hold off the Sith just enough to prevent their total dominance; through her aid, the Republic military was even able to secure a small number of victories.

As the war reached its midpoint, with Revan presumed dead and Malak now focusing on a war of destruction rather than simply a war of conquest, the situation seemed to become more and more dire. Even as the reprogrammed and retrained Revan attempted to reacquire his knowledge of the Star Forge, the Republic was barely holding on; reports of battlefleets lost in far-off engagements peculated in and around the Dantooine Jedi Enclave regularly. After the war's final battle, it seemed that the Republic had weathered its greatest storm, however, all was not as it appeared to be. Despite the well-funded campaign to foster the reclamation and rebuilding of worlds devastated by the Jedi Civil War, five years later the Republic faced imminent collapse not from war, but from the simple inability to support itself. Corporate interests, criminal organizations, secessionist movements and, even, the actions of the hidden remnants of the Sith served to weaken the galactic government from within. However, thanks largely to the return of an exiled Jedi Knight, many of these activities on a number of key worlds were halted, and the Republic once again began to reassert itself as the dominant power in the galaxy.

Key Sith figuresDarth Revan

A highly-gifted and charismatic Jedi Knight, Revan was sometimes considered one of the most powerful Force-users of his day. An enigmatic figure when it suited him to be so, he sought out the teachings of many contemporary Jedi Masters, including Zhar Lestin, Dorak, and the woman who would become known as Kreia. When the Mandalorians began their Neo-Crusade, Revan made it his business to monitor the events unfolding on the edge of the Outer Rim, eventually earning the ire of the Jedi Council for his willingness to investigate on his own.

Drew Karpyshyn, in his article Heritage of the Sith which appeared in Star Wars Insider 88, stated that "Revan and Malak began a 20-year campaign to end the 'tyranny' of the Jedi Council once and for all." Though Karpyshyn was in fact the lead writer working for BioWare on the story for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, this account does not seem to mesh with the timeline given in the game's sequel, as well as the Knights of the Old Republic series of comic books, published by Dark Horse Comics. Information presented in Jedi vs. Sith: The Essential Guide to the Force also suggests that this could either be an error on Karpyshyn's part, or that the Heritage article was written from an IU perspective, taken from the point of view of the Sith themselves.

Appearances

*Shadows and Light *Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 5: Commencement, Part 5 **The Betrayal of Darth Revan*Knights of the Old Republic: Opportunities*Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic *Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords *Darth Bane: Path of Destruction *Star Wars: Empire at War *Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption